A wireless recognition IC tag for reading data programmed in a semiconductor chip by using microwave and the like is also referred to as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag, and its applications in various fields have been promoted.
While this kind of IC tag has an advantage of being able to store a large amount of data as compared with a tag using barcodes and the like because it stores data in a memory circuit inside a semiconductor chip, its manufacturing cost is high due to a complicated structure it has, and this has been a main cause to hinder widespread use.
Hence, in recent years, a development of an inexpensive IC tag inlet (hereinafter, sometimes referred to simply as inlet) simplified in the structure has been advanced. This IC tag inlet includes an antenna formed of a thin Al (aluminum) foil and a semiconductor chip (hereinafter, sometimes referred to simply as chip) loaded on a surface of this antenna. The outer size of the semiconductor chip is 0.3 mm square to 0.4 mm square, and a thickness is about several tens of μm; but recently, because of demands for miniaturization and thinning of the inlet, the semiconductor chip for the micro IC tag having an outer diameter of 0.15 mm square or smaller and a thickness of 10 μm or smaller has been developed.
However, since the micro semiconductor chip as described above has an extremely small size, it is not possible to perform an operation such as picking up by tweezers and loading it on an antenna like the conventional semiconductor chip. Accordingly, to mass-produce the IC tag inlets having the micro semiconductor chip at a low price, a technique capable of efficiently handling the micro semiconductor chip is required.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H10-033969 and Japanese Patent No. 3326462 disclose a technique of making a gas flow into a drop tube when needed according to a method for manufacturing a spherical semiconductor device in which granular silicon supplied from a material supply apparatus is fused in a drop tube so that spherical silicon crystal is formed, and after that, it is cooled to be recovered. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H07-283098 discloses a standard particle generator in which alcohol vapor (hydrophobic organic gas) in a supersaturation state is flocculated with fine particles as condensation nuclei, so that they are grown into particles of nm size.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H10-033969    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 3326462    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H07-283098